Polar has been fairly busy over the previous 12 months or so releasing the Vantage V3 and Grit X2 Professional smartwatches, and it might have simply saved its greatest look ahead to final. The Polar Vantage M3 is a superb smartwatch constructed for athletes of all shapes, sizes, and talents. You don’t even should be an athlete to benefit from the Vantage M3, though you’ll miss out on many fitness-focused advantages.
With the watch market turning into more and more aggressive because of some superb smartwatches, Polar wanted a strong, purposeful, and well-priced gadget in its steady. Not solely did Polar lastly get its pricing construction proper with the Vantage M3, however the Finnish firm is becoming a member of all three of its top-tier watches right into a single software program platform, that means that the Vantage M3 will get the identical characteristic set as its costlier siblings.
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Polar Vantage M3
The Polar Vantage M3 is a health-focused smartwatch full of options. With clean day by day efficiency and as much as seven days of battery life, it is fairly the gadget. The Vantage M3 has many options and metrics designed to provide you a holistic view of your well being and does so exceedingly nicely.
- Vibrant, stunning AMOLED contact show
- As much as per week of battery life
- A ton of health options and well being metrics
- Full map help
- Polar Circulation must be streamlined
- No app retailer to increase options
- Strap is finicky
Value, availability, and specs
Polar launched the Vantage M3 on the finish of October 2024 with a $400 price ticket. On the time of writing, the gadget is simply obtainable straight from Polar in two colorways: Greige Sand and Evening Black.
What’s good in regards to the Polar Vantage M3?
Excellent measurement, mild, and well-designed
The Vantage M3 has rather a lot to love, however I’ll begin with one of many greatest upgrades over the earlier era M2: the show. The M3 has a beautiful-looking 1.28-inch AMOLED show. Due to its 416 x 416 decision, colours pop and textual content is sharp. With as much as 1500 nits of brightness, I by no means struggled to see it outdoors.
The 1.28-inch show, whereas not as giant as its pricier siblings, helps maintain the dimensions and weight of the Vantage M3 to a minimal. At 12mm skinny, 44mm in diameter, and weighing solely 53g with the wrist straps, the M3 could be very mild and matches completely on my wrist.
I used to be additionally fairly keen on the M3’s total design. The stainless steel bezel has small studs that look good and permit for a tactile really feel when your finger reaches the sting of the show. This watch has character, extra so than one thing just like the Google Pixel Watch 3.
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Polar additionally provides you loads of methods to work together with the watch interface. Along with the touchscreen, there are 5 buttons on the facet, two on the left and three on the correct. These buttons assure you could navigate the watch no matter whether or not you are carrying gloves or the show is moist.
The whole lot that you are able to do on the touchscreen could be achieved utilizing the facet buttons. You’ll be able to even disable the touchscreen by lengthy urgent the highest button on the left facet, avoiding unintentional activation for moments when buttons simply work higher.
Battery life was wonderful throughout my testing. Polar claims that the Vantage M3 can hit 7 days in smartwatch mode and report as much as 30 hours of steady coaching utilizing the dual-frequency GPS. Throughout my testing, I used to be getting anyplace from 5 to 6 days of battery life with an excellent mixture of day by day GPS-enabled train and smartwatch mode.
Well being-focused goodness
Whereas the match and end of the M3 are necessary, the principle draw is the broad assortment of health-tracking options and capabilities. The Vantage M3 has Polar’s fourth-generation optical coronary heart charge sensor, a SpO2 sensor, a pores and skin temperature sensor, an ECG sensor, a barometer, a magnetometer compass, and an accelerometer.
There are over 150 sports activities profiles, however as a runner myself, I used to be fairly happy with the Vantage M3’s suite of talents throughout my testing. You even get Hill Splitter, which mechanically detects uphill and downhill sections, supplying you with perception into how shortly you had been capable of run the hill.
There’s Coaching Load Professional which signifies after I ought to relaxation or after I’m able to deal with my subsequent exercise, serving to maintain me injury-free. There’s additionally train strategies based mostly in your current coaching actions. These strategies fall into energy, cardio, and supportive train classes.
Throughout my testing, the Vantage M3 did an excellent job of monitoring my coronary heart charge. I’ll add the caveat that I don’t personal a chest-based coronary heart charge monitor just like the Polar H10, nevertheless it was at all times within the realm of my averages and was correct sufficient for me.
The twin-band GPS was additionally fairly correct throughout my testing. When working in open areas, the M3 was fast to amass a sign and usually caught to my working path. In additional densely packed areas, resembling mountain climbing up a mountain, the M3 deviated a bit, however not notably so. It’s not so good as the Samsung Galaxy Watch Extremely, nevertheless it provides stable GPS efficiency total.
Polar geared up the M3 with full offline map capabilities, together with streets, waterways, highways, and buildings. You may as well observe predetermined routes through a breadcrumb route or turn-by-turn navigation with Komoot.
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What’s dangerous in regards to the Polar Vantage M3?
Polar Circulation wants refinement
There are a few issues that Polar does that I’m not an enormous fan of. The Polar Circulation app retains monitor of all health-related information, however the app must be streamlined a bit. There are a ton of menus and never all the info is laid out simply. There are many graphs and information obtainable, nevertheless it’s not at all times simple to find and browse.
Polar shops all information within the cloud and means that you can entry Polar Circulation straight from an online browser. It’s far simpler to digest information utilizing this methodology in comparison with the cellphone app. Polar can be sluggish so as to add characteristic updates in comparison with its rivals like Garmin. This does give the platform a sure degree of stability, however should you get pleasure from getting loads of options added after the actual fact, you might be dissatisfied.
The primary downside to a watch just like the Polar Vantage M3 is the dearth of full smartwatch options. You’ll be able to view your notifications and the climate and management the music taking part in in your cellphone, however that’s about all. And its performance cannot be prolonged via third-party apps as there isn’t a spot to obtain further apps.
The watch cannot be used to speak in your wrist, and when you can see your notifications, you possibly can’t work together with them outdoors of clearing them. There’s additionally no mobile connectivity, so that you have to be linked to your cellphone to get all of the options. This gained’t be a deal-breaker for a lot of, however should you require further apps or mobile connectivity, you may must look elsewhere.
And I wasn’t an enormous fan of the included silicone strap. It was snug sufficient and stayed safe as soon as it was on my wrist, however working the strap and buckle may shortly turn into irritating. I needed to struggle with the strap to get it tucked beneath the loop far too usually. Fortunately, the strap could be swapped out as Polar makes use of an industry-standard 22mm watch strap.
Must you purchase it?
There are a lot of the reason why you can purchase the Polar Vantage M3 and some to probably skip it. If you need a well-designed watch that excels at well being monitoring, the Vantage M3 is a big win. It has wonderful health monitoring talents, a vibrant and exquisite show, and nice battery life. The comfort of not having to cost your watch each night time and even each different night time can’t be understated.
If you happen to’re after a smartwatch that may duplicate what your cellphone does, the Vantage M3 will not be a perfect selection. You’ll be able to’t obtain apps to increase its performance, take calls out of your wrist, or ditch your cellphone altogether with mobile connectivity.
What you do get is a stable fitness-focused smartwatch that does the whole lot else fairly nicely. It is snug to put on for lengthy durations, helps get you into form, and helps stop you from hurting your self by overexercising. It’s an important possibility for anybody even remotely considering bettering their well being.
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Polar Vantage M3
The Vantage M3 knocks it out of the park for Polar. This smartwatch provides a unbelievable characteristic set and a ton of well being metrics at a really engaging value. It might probably’t obtain apps or work together with notifications, nevertheless it does nearly the whole lot else exceedingly nicely.
